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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698626">happily ever after</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobrainjustchiakienstar/pseuds/nobrainjustchiakienstar'>nobrainjustchiakienstar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Niki gets his happily ever after, literally that's it</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:27:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobrainjustchiakienstar/pseuds/nobrainjustchiakienstar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Niki expected his happily ever after to entail running away from everything -- ES, the city, idols, his father's expectations -- and marrying into royalty, never having to work another day in his life, and eating all of the food he pleased.</p><p>It didn't quite go as planned, but neither did anything else in Niki's life anyway.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amagi Rinne/Shiina Niki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>108</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>happily ever after</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i'm literally busting this out through my tears over the ending of the main story don't look at me or my mistakes i'll try to come back and edit later if it sucks</p><p>they're... married.... these bitches gay, good for them</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Niki expected his happily ever after to entail running away from his problems, marrying into royalty, never having to work another day in his life, and eating all of the food he pleased.</p><p>Sure, maybe “happily ever after” was just a thing of fairy tales, something to daydream about when life sucked, something that anyone with a half a brain knew was unattainable, but Niki never went to high school and he never pretended to be smart in the first place. So when he swore to Rinne that he would follow him anywhere, even to the ends of the earth, he really believed that his “happily ever after” was waiting for him: no more working his ass off to just end up starving, no more idol funny-business, no more having to look his father in the eye to see the betrayal reflected back at him for becoming the very thing that dragged his family through the mud -- just him, Rinne, and years of freedom and food and leisure, far from the city and all of their problems.</p><p>But, of course, it didn't quite go as planned... but neither did anything else in Niki's life anyway.</p><p>They’d honestly started packing to leave. Their Crazy:B outfits hung neatly in Niki’s closet (well, <em> their </em>closet) next to all of their other Ensemble Square uniforms, the rest of their essential belongings tucked neatly into a duffel bag each -- they wouldn’t need much where they were going anyway.</p><p>Rinne stayed quiet for most of that night, but over a late meal (their last late meal in that apartment, Niki realized with a pang of nostalgia) he finally broke the silence.</p><p>“Are ya sure, Niki-kyun?”</p><p>Niki didn’t need to ask for clarification. He chewed slowly, trying to piece together the right words to settle Rinne’s worries for good, but the words to describe just how sure he was about staying with this man for the rest of his life were too weighty, too complex for him to string together in a way that would do his feelings justice.</p><p>So Niki swallowed the bit of meat he was chewing, rose from his seat at their little table, and took the two small steps to stand in front of Rinne, whose bright blue eyes (beautiful, Niki always thought, with their flecks of green and teal) stared up at him with confusion and wariness swirling in their depths.</p><p>Words were too difficult when Niki needed to put Rinne’s worries to rest, but reaching out to hold Rinne’s face with both of his hands, leaning down to close the distance between their lips, and realizing they hadn’t actually <em> done </em> this before was much, much easier. Niki tried to say “of course I’m sure, I’d go anywhere you go as long as you’ll let me, I love you so much and I always will” and so, so much more as best as he could through his kiss, hoping that Rinne understood as much.</p><p>It seemed he understood perfectly, if his tugging at Niki’s shirt to pull him closer into his lap and their forgotten plates were any indicator as one tender kiss turned into two, then four, then more until Niki stopped bothering to count. He added this to the list of things included in his happy ending, wondering for a second why it took them so long to take this step before he gave up on thinking because all that mattered in that moment was remembering to breathe, Rinne’s lips on his, and slender hands running through his hair.</p><p>Eventually they parted and, with their foreheads resting against each other, Niki knew now more than ever that Rinne would take him to his happily ever after. He couldn’t wait to see his hometown.</p><p>“I’m sure,” Niki finally answered once he caught his breath. After a second he added, “I love you,” in barely a whisper, as if keeping it a secret between the two of them in their quiet apartment.</p><p>Rinne smiled up at him, his first genuine smile of the day, and Niki’s heart skipped a beat.</p><p>“I love you too, Niki-kyun~”</p><p>There wasn’t much more to do after they’d cleaned up their dishes, which in itself already felt almost painfully domestic with how natural it felt to stand side by side, shoulders bumping as they wordlessly cleaned the kitchen for the last time. Heading to bed, setting their matching beaded bracelets that Rinne had gotten for them ages ago on the side table, and climbing into Niki’s bed (which definitely wasn’t intended to fit two grown men) for the last time in that apartment was bittersweet, but Niki held Rinne’s thin body closer and inhaled the lingering scent of honey whiskey that seemed to always cling to the older man, the scent comforting as they drifted to sleep together.</p><p>The plan was to leave in the morning, happily ever after mere hours away.</p><p>But, of course, just like everything else related to Rinne, that plan went just slightly sideways. That is, if “slightly sideways” meant they didn’t actually leave at all and ended up going to MDM anyway, even though they said they’d be on a train out of Tokyo long before it was supposed to start.</p><p>Niki thought he was done being an idol once and for all, yet there he was donning the Crazy:B outfit yet again, following Rinne onto their biggest stage yet. He wasn’t about to go back on his promise -- he’d vowed to be by Rinne’s side no matter what and this was no exception. He’d give his all for Crazy:B, for Alkaloid, for their fans and for Rinne one last time, as promised, the black beaded bracelet on his wrist a gentle but constant reminder that he was here for <em> Rinne </em>.</p><p>There was something different this time though, and Niki had a hard time putting his finger on exactly what it was. The atmosphere felt lighter, the other members of Crazy:B and Alkaloid felt more like close friends than they had before, and he realized it would hurt to say goodbye to them. Watching Rinne was also different -- his usually-wild dancing was more carefree, more like it used to be years ago when they’d first started on their crazy idol pipedream together.</p><p>He looked happy again, Niki realized.</p><p>Rinne’s smile never faded through their set; if anything it grew wider and brighter, almost blinding while the rest of both units looked almost ready to collapse. Rinne launched into a very-ES monologue with the little one from Alkaloid, reminiscing about his early days as an idol with Niki, when he pulled all of the weight on his own and performed on rickety temporary stages in parks.</p><p>Niki idly fidgeted with the beaded bracelet on his wrist, the gift from Rinne from years ago that signified their bond that would last forever, and when Rinne turned to him just briefly, as if to make sure Niki was indeed still by his side after all this time, Niki realized that his brilliant smile and sparkling blue eyes gleaming with pure joy may just be his happily ever after that he’d been dreaming of.</p><p>Maybe his “happily ever after” wasn’t running from his problems with Rinne, but instead facing them head-on with Rinne’s hand in his own. Maybe it wasn’t living the rest of his life lavishly as a lord’s spouse, if that was even allowed with both of them being men, but actually living comfortably with the man he loved, cooking and cleaning and working and just <em> existing </em> together. It was seeing that smile every day, curling up beside him every night, eating meals together, writing and practicing new songs together, standing on stage together, making Niki’s little apartment a home together.</p><p>Niki may not have been all that smart, but at least he knew when he’d found happily ever after.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>stan crazy:b *starts sobbing uncontrollably again*</p><p>
  <a href="https://twitter.com/shiinyniki">my twitter</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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